Then fell I down upon my face, and cried with a loud voice, and said, Ah Lord God! wilt thou make a full end of the remnant of lsrael?…Therefore say, Thus saith the Lord God; Although I have cast them far off among the heathen, and although I have scattered them among the countries, yet will I be to them as a little sanctuary in the countries where they shall come.”
Eze 11:13,16
God not only invites us into His sanctuary to pray. He is Himself as “a little sanctuary” to His exiled people (11:16). One woman wrote:
“A little Sanctuary” art Thou to me! O Jesus, best beloved!
I live with Thee:
My heart is stilled beneath love’s canopy, It’s sure abiding
place where’er I roam.
“A little Sanctuary” art Thou to me! My heart has found its
everlasting home,
The “Holiest of All” is opened wide, And I may enter and
be satisfied.
Such a prayer echoes the hopelessness of Ezekiel’s task, yet he had the imprimatur of a true spokesman for God, as can be seen in chapter 33, verse 33. God never forgets His people, even though He may have occasion to afflict them. His “lovingkindness will He not utterly take from them.” Thus when sin is thoroughly dealt with and hearts are fully restored, prayer-fellowship is a blessed reality once more.
Is not the life-giving wind the Holy Spirit, and are we not justified in praying to the Spirit (Eze 37:9,10)? The Holy Spirit is also the River issuing from the sanctuary (Eze 47:1-12; Jn 7:37-89). While Old Testament priests exercised judicial functions and taught the people ritual distinctions, New Testament priests are conspicuous for their intercessory ministry.
A little Sanctuary” art Thou to me! No fabled shrine, but
deep reality!
Thou saidst it shouldn’t be so when at Thy call I rose and
followed gladly, leaving all.
“A little Sanctuary” art Thou to me! All joyfully I pitch my
tent with Thee;
Or ready still to journey at Thy word “In Thee” I “live and
move,” most blessed Lord.
“A little Sanctuary” art Thou to me! I always am “at home”
on land or sea;
Alone, yet never lonely now, I prove The “Hundredfold,”
Lord Jesus, in Thy love.
The precious phrase “I will be to thee as a little sanctuary” can be expressed “as a sanctuary for a little.” During the captivity of His people, God’s presence with them spiritually would be instead of the outward symbolical presence in His Temple. God had already declared that He would abandon the material sanctuary and give it up to destruction. Now He offers Himself as a sanctuary to His people scattered among enemies. It is blessed to know that when shut out from God’s house; we can be shut in with Him.
Ezekiel deemed it a sin not to pray for those God had permitted to be led into captivity. As an intercessor, the prophet is akin to Abraham pleading for Sodom in Genesis 14. As always, God has a just cause for His actions (14:23; 16:22, 27, 49; 18:25; 42:1-9). The normal function of prayer is to make intercession with God for others and to make up the hedge, and stand in the gap (22:30).
It was Ezekiel’s sad mission to convey to Israel God’s judgment upon the nation for its gross sins, but the message of the sighing prophet seemed as an idle tale and his heart sob was “Ah Lord God! They say of me, doth he not speak parables”?